Walmart, big-box stores linked with hate groups in study

The number of big-box retailers in a community can have social and economic effects that lead to the formation of hate groups, a recent study found.

Researchers found a stronger correlation between the number of Walmart stores in a county and local hate group activity than other factors such as unemployment, crime and low education.

“Walmart has clearly done good things in these communities, especially in terms of lowering prices, but there may be indirect costs that are not as obvious as other effects,” said Stephan Goetz, Penn State professor and the study’s lead author.

Goetz’s team speculated that because big-box stores drive away small businesses, they also contribute to the erosion of community values, civil engagement and social bonds, allowing for hate group activity to rise.

Goetz also serves as the director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development. He worked with professors from the New Mexico State University and Michigan State University on the hate group study. Their findings were published a recent edition of Social Science Quarterly:

The researchers used data collected by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that monitors the activities of hate groups, on hate groups in each U.S. county in 2007. They used the number and location of Wal-Mart stores from 1998. Goetz said the lag time between the data sets provided time for the possible influence of a store to affect a community.

Goetz said that the researchers chose Wal-Mart for the study because of the availability of data on the stores. He added that the presence of Wal-Mart in an area generally indicates the establishment of other types of big-box retailers, such as Home Depot and Target.

“We’re not trying to pick on Wal-Mart,” said Goetz. “In this study, Wal-Mart is really serving as a proxy for any type of large retailer.”